Embodiments of the present invention relate to a loudspeaker array having an encapsulated baffle and a plurality of sound transducers as well as to a manufacturing method thereof.
Loudspeaker arrays may be arranged, e.g., as line arrays or surface arrays.
Loudspeaker arrays play an increasingly important role in various acoustic irradiation scenarios. A significant advantage over conventional loudspeakers is the possibility of influencing the radiation characteristic of the loudspeaker array by individually driving each individual sound transducer.
Manufacturing loudspeaker arrays in accordance with the conventional technology is complex and can often only be realized with a great effort in terms of material and assembly. In order to avoid acoustic short circuits, the rearward sound of the array has to be isolated from the sound emitted forwardly. This is achieved by installing the loudspeaker array into a housing which may, e.g., be closed. Depending on the application, individually driving the individual loudspeakers in the array requires a separate individual housing, which may, e.g., be separated in an air-tight manner, per sound transducer in order to avoid influencing adjacent transducers by the rearward sound pressure inside of the housing. Therefore, the housing of a loudspeaker array has to be divided into so-called chambers, which requires a large amount of effort, in order to allow each individual transducer to have its own closed housing volume.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,201,251, an array structure may alternatively also be realized by arranging individual closed loudspeaker housings in series. However, depending on the size of the array, the effort in terms of material and assembly which is involved in both concepts presented above is accordingly high. Thus, there is a need for an improved approach.